The 1964 termination of the Studebaker Corporation's pension plan wiped out or significantly reduced the pensions of thousands of the automaker's employees and retirees. In response, the US Congress passed the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a monumental and revolutionary piece of legislation crafted to address corporate pension underfunding. The bill also set new rules regarding defined benefit (DB) and other retirement plans, and it established the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as a government-run insurer to serve as a backdrop to U.S. corporate pensions....
The 1964 termination of the Studebaker Corporation's pension plan wiped out or significantly reduced the pensions of thousands of the automaker's empl...